Gov. Jerry Brown”s signature on Senate Bill 277 on June 30 requires almost all California school children to be fully vaccinated by next school year in order to attend public or private schools, regardless of their parents” personal or religious beliefs.

“The science is clear that vaccines dramatically protect children against a number of infectious and dangerous diseases,”” Brown wrote in his signing message. “While it”s true that no medical intervention is without risk, the evidence shows that immunization powerfully benefits and protects the community.””

The bill, authored by Sens. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento and Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, aims to curb preventable contagions, outbreaks and hospitalization of children for illnesses that could be prevented with vaccinations.

Under the law, vaccinations would be required of children first entering public school, or when they enter seventh grade, after July 1, 2016.

The clamor around the elimination of the “personal belief exemption” heated up in California after a measles outbreak last December at Disneyland.

By the time they declared the outbreak over in mid-April, state health officials confirmed 136 measles cases in California.

Under the law, a physician has broad authority to grant a medical exemption, not only to children who have had severe reactions to vaccines in the past, but also if a family member had a bad reaction to a vaccine.

Brian Killgore, spokesman for Fremont Unified School District, said around 400 out of the 34,000 students in the school district, or a little more than 1 percent, had a vaccination exemption. This averages out to about 10 students per school.

He said 107 high school students, 51 junior high students and 250 elementary level pupils have exemptions.

“Information about the new rules will be posted on the Student Support Services page of the district website, on the individual schools” websites and school newsletters throughout the 2015-16 school year. Exempted students will also be contacted directly via letter reminding them of the rule changes. FUSD students and their families will not have to take action until they enter kindergarten, seventh or ninth grade,” Killgore said.

According to an article by education reporting agency EdSource, most school districts in the state will be affected by this new law with 47 out of 58 counties reporting in 2014-15 that they had kindergarteners with personal belief exemptions to school-required vaccinations.

The EdSource article stated the number of unvaccinated students is low, with only 13,500 kindergarteners having a personal belief exemption out of a statewide enrollment of 500,000.

For children who currently have personal belief exemptions on file before Jan. 1, 2016, they will be “grandfathered in.” The law will not apply to them until they reach their next vaccination checkpoint (kindergarten or seventh grade).